FEATURED ARTICLES ABOUT STIMULUS - PAGE 5

NEW YORK: Gold today rose as the outlook for more stimulus from the US Federal Reserve spurred demand for the metal as a store of value. The precious metal rose by 0.1 per cent to $ 1,734.10 an ounce, while Silver was little-changed at $ 33.54 an ounce. The policy-setting Federal Open Market Committee will consider asset purchases at its meeting tomorrow, with unemployment stalled above 8 per cent for 43 months. Chairman Ben S Bernanke signaled last month that a third round of quantitative easing may be needed to reduce joblessness.

LONDON: Gold on Friday fell, cutting a second straight monthly gain, on speculation improving the US data will support the case for the Federal Reserve to curb stimulus. Gold fell 0.9 per cent to 1,394.41 dollar an ounce. Prices that are little changed this week are up 5.2 per cent this month. Silver slipped 1.1 per cent to USD 23.62 an ounce, cutting this month's gain to 19 per cent. Silver-backed ETP holdings reached a record 20,080.9 tonnes yesterday and are up 6.2 per cent this year.

LONDON: Gold today declined as US jobs data backed the case for the Federal Reserve to keep reducing stimulus. Gold fell by 0.3 per cent to $ 1,335.94 an ounce. It reached $ 1,354.87 on March 3, the highest since October 30. Silver also fell 0.2 per cent to $20.89 an ounce, after reaching 20.61 an ounce, the lowest since February 14. Gold posted a fifth weekly gain last week as tension between Ukraine and Russia escalated, boosting demand for a haven. Pro-Russian forces advanced in the Crimean peninsula , ignoring Western calls to halt a military takeover before the region holds a referendum on separation.

HYDERABAD: Concerned with sluggish economic growth, the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) today said that it is time the Reserve Bank of India provide monetary stimulus by cutting CRR and Repo rate by 100 basis points. The industry body in its ten-point Economic Revival Package submitted to the government has also suggested that the FDI limits should be increased in civil aviation and defence besides allowing multi-brand retail, CII President Adi Godrej said at a press conference here.

BOSTON: Aggressive monetary policy by developed economies may hurt global growth by pushing emerging markets to pile up foreign-exchange reserves instead of spending, Reserve Bank of India governor Raghuram Rajan said. Rajan, a regular critic of the unprecedented monetary stimulus the world's richest nations have put in place, said the world is "setting the stage for a repeat" of the years that followed the Asian financial crisis of the late 1990s. At the time, developing economies traumatized by capital outflows and painful bailouts started accumulating reserves as insurance, leaving it to US consumers to buoy global consumption.

WASHINGTON: It's a tale of two economies, China and the United States. The United States, the world's largest economy, remains mired in recession as do most of its fellow top industrial powers. China, meanwhile, has returned to growth. Economic and strategic cooperation between the two world economic superpowers tops the agenda as top officials from both countries hold a two-day meeting in Washington, beginning Monday. China, poised to pass Japan as the world's second-largest economy perhaps by late this year, recently announced its gross domestic product grew by more than 7.1% in the first half of this year.

CHENNAI: Union commerce and industry minister Anand Sharma on Friday appeared confident that the stimulus package would continue for labour intensive sectors, especially engineering goods, leather and garments, which are barely limping back to recovery. His remarks came exactly a week before the Union Budget. When asked if he had convinced Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee to retain stimulus in the upcoming Budget, Mr Sharma said Mr Mukherjee was "well-informed and sensitive" to the challenges of Indian trade.

HONG KONG: Hong Kong shares climbed on Monday amid hopes a massive stimulus plan will boost the US economy, but expectations of dour fourth quarter earnings capped gains. Hong Kong's Hang Seng recovered early losses to add 84.48 points, or more than 0.6 percent, to 13,339.99. Sentiment has been supported in recent days by hopes that the new U.S. administration under President-elect Barack Obama, who takes office Tuesday, will act to revive the economy. The optimism could quickly fade amid a litany of dismal earnings results, said Castor Pang, an analyst at Sun Hung Kai Financial.

BEIJING: ZHAO Hang, who helped devise China's auto-stimulus package, is facing demand from car buyers battling an unexpected consequence ? two-month waiting lists. "Eight friends have asked me to make calls or write notes to contacts to help speed purchases," Zhao, president of the government-linked China Automotive Technology & Research Center said. "Given the world economic situation, demand for cars is surprisingly strong in China. " Beijing drivers, used to leaving showrooms with new cars the same day, now have to wait about three weeks for a Hyundai Motor Yuedong Elantra or as long as eight weeks for a Honda Motor CR-V SUV. Carmakers failed to predict a 14% sales jump caused by an economic rebound, tax cuts and subsidies and are now trying to raise Chinese output even as they cut US and European production on plunging sales.

The finance minister has delivered the single-most significant expectation from the budget: fiscal consolidation. With this, India joins a select band of countries that have begun to exit the extraordinary stimulus governments unleashed to combat the global crisis. While partially reversing the tax giveaways, the government has unified the rates of tax on goods and on services, and expanded the scope of service tax a bit, achieving tax reform in the process and facilitating the proposed move to a goods and services tax (GST)